Like the Molave

by Rafael Zulueta da Costa

Not yet, Rizal, not yet. Sleep not in peace:

There are a thousand waters to be spanned;
There are a thousand mountains to be crossed;
There are a thousand crosses to be borne.
Our shoulders are not strong; our sinews are
Grown flaccid with dependence, smug with ease
Under anothers wing. Rest not in peace;
Not yet, Rizal, not yet. The land has need
Of young blood-and, what younger than your own,
Forever spilled in the great name of freedom,
Forever oblate on the altar of
The free? Not you alone, Rizal. O souls
And spirits of the martyred brave, arise!
Arise and scour the land! Shed once again
Your willing blood! Infuse the vibrant red
Into our thin anaemic veins; until
We pick up your Promethean tools and, strong,
Out of the depthless matrix of your of your faith
In us, and on the silent cliffs of freedom,
We carve for all time your marmoreal dream!
Until our people, seeing, are become
Like the molave, firm, resilent, staunch,

Rising on the hillside, unafraid,

Strong in its own fibre, yes, like the molave!
We, the Filipinos of today, are soft,
easygoing, parasitic , frivolous,
inconstant, indolent, inefficient.
Would you have me sugarcoat you?
I would be happier to shower praise upon
My countrymenbut let us be realist
let us strip ourselves
Youth of the land, you are a bitter pill to shallow
Source: Skill Builders for Efficient Reading, 2003